HBO Canada breaks launch campaign
By Adnews Staff
HBO Canada began a national marketing campaign yesterday to promote the channel launch on Oct. 30. The campaign is being conducted by Astral Media and Corus Entertainment, which will carry the channel in eastern and western Canada respectively. The launch campaign consists of print, radio, television, online and out-of-home advertising in Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg. A number of local cable and satellite providers are running complementary campaigns using the same creative. The print creative includes four executions, each promoting a program that will air on HBO Canada. The ads bear the tagline "Hello" and the copy, "Get It. It's Here." The 30-second television commercial is a montage of HBO programming clips. Out-of-home elements include transit advertising, branded vehicles and street-based activities. The campaign was developed in-house by Astral and Corus. Media buying was handled by Media Experts and M2 Universal. The campaign will run for six weeks. "The campaign's key objective is to build awareness and excitement of this new HBO-branded destination in Canada," said Domenic Vivolo, senior vice-president of marketing and sales at Astral. "The campaign uses simple and direct messaging such as 'Hello,' 'It's Here' and 'Get It' to create awareness and induce trial of the service. We are confident that this launch campaign will deliver on all of its objectives and establish the service as one of the premium brands in Canada."